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Great Battles: Lucy vs Nana (Round One)
''Note: this article will be describing Lucy and Nana's fight as it occurs in the anime. The differences between the fight in the anime and manga will be noted below.'' The first battle between Lucy and Nana serves to show off more of Lucy's brutality against opponents who are on equal footing as her, such as other Diclonii. This was the second attempt the Diclonius Research Institute, which frst deployed a platoon of SAT troops to Kamakura in order to capture her, resulting in a spectacular failure, to recapture Lucy, who carved a path of blood and death upon escaping their grasp. Seeing that humans won't be enough to contain what they perceived as the greatest threat to humanity, Kurama decided to fight fire with fire. A strategy he would regret dearly. The battle begins not with a challenge but with a plea in the guise of a statement. Nana, sent to locate Lucy under request by Kurama, tells her it's useless to run since "they" already know where she is. Lucy doesn't respond but merely stands up as if she means to walk away without a care. Nana asks if she'll kill her too, to which Lucy states she's never killed an actual "person" before this. With that said, she starts down the steps, but is stopped by Nana's plea. They won't let her go back home until she brings her back, but rather than consider what she has to say, Lucy answers with a threat. Her vectors slide into Nana's body, but for the moment, are completely harmless. Lucy could kill her easily by just moving an artery in her brain 1mm away from where it needs to be, and the fact that she hasn't already means she doesn't necessarily want to kill Nana but will if she has to. With Nana standing still, scared and trembling, Lucy again tries to leave. Regaining her composure, Lucy whirls around and one of her vectors slams into Nana with enough force to knock her into the stone wall near her. While Nana doubles over in pain, Lucy confirms she was going to just let her go, but now she's changed her mind. Undaunted by pain, Nana brings herself up and claims the pain doesn't bother her. She'll show Lucy what pain actually is, and when Lucy tries to dodge Nana's vectors, she's shocked to learn they're much longer than her own. As they hit her, Lucy flies away from the stairs and lands in the cemetery not far away. While Lucy tries to recover and glares Nana down, another of Nana's vectors wraps around her throat as Nana approaches. When Lucy tries to attack Nana again with her own, they stop just short of the younger girl, and Lucy realizes Nana's reach is indeed longer than hers. Nana says she won't kill her, but she'll "teach her a lesson" for Kurama's sake. Following a cutaway scene, Nana goes on to say that if she was serious, Lucy would've died three times already, and even echoes back Lucy's own earlier boast of how simple it would be to move a blood vessel 1mm. Lucy responds by lifting several tombstones from the surrounding graves into the air. Nana jumps out of the way as they hit the ground where she once stood, and her lapse in concentration allows Lucy to stand up. However, Nana recovers quickly and hits her in the face with a vector. After another cutaway, both Diclonii have apparently come to a standstill. Nana again asks if Lucy's ready to go back with her and reminds her how futile it is to fight her with such short vectors. Lucy only smirks in response and throws another tombstone at her, then wooden posts from nearby as Nana jumps away. Nana temporarily loses sight of her, which rightfully worries her, and is unaware Lucy is right behind her. Lucy raises more boards and gravestones into the air before throwing them down at Nana, but when the dust settles, she's irritated to see Nana is no worse for wear. She used her vectors to pull herself closer to a tree further away, out of the projectiles' landing area. Nana dusts herself off, looking more annoyed than anything, and as Lucy brings more projectiles to bear, she throws herself into the air to dodge them. Lucy follows her into the air and her vectors punch Nana right in the stomach before throwing her to the ground and sending up another cloud of dust. Unbeknownst to the combatants, the noise from the impact alerted Mayu to the fight. As she approaches, she recognizes Lucy as Nyuu, who she met before at the Maple House. Nana stands up and wipes the blood off her lip. She's still undeterred from the fight and means to bring Lucy back by any means necessary. She apologizes to Lucy as one of her vectors goes into Lucy's leg. It doesn't do anything right away, but the meaning is clear: all she has to do is cut a tendon or sever the nerves in her leg and Lucy will be unable to walk or leave. Mayu runs up the stairs to the two girls' location, begging them to stop fighting. Her interruption surprises Nana, who reaches out and yells at her to not come closer. Unfortunately, what Lucy lacks in her vectors' reach, she makes up for with absolute brutality. The moment Nana's guard drops, Lucy cuts Nana's right-hand fingers and her leg off. This surprises Mayu as well, who screams and is thrown into a nearby tree by Lucy's vectors so she won't get even more in the way than she already has. Nana lies bleeding on the ground where she can only whimper and tremble from the indescribable pain. She begs Kurama to come help her, and when she opens her eyes, she gasps as Lucy's looming over her. The younger Diclonius sits up and defiantly claims it doesn't hurt at all, which Lucy tests by ripping Nana's right arm off. She asks if it hurts now, and Nana tries to crawl away with her good arm. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work, and she softly whimpers for Lucy to stop. In spite of Nana's pleas, Lucy rips off her remaining arm and leg. Nana falls onto her back and stares up at the Jizo statues standing over her, dazed. Lucy again asks if it hurts and consoles Nana with the fact that she'll put her out of her misery soon. She raises a hand, perhaps showing her intent to bring her vectors down to bear again, but a bullet strikes a gravestone behind her head. She turns in the direction it was shot from, but the snipers can't be seen through the banners they're hiding behind across the street. The snipers hold off as Kurama enters the cemetery, and he's dismayed to see Nana in such straits. As he nears, Lucy turns her attention on him, and Nana takes advantage of her lack of focus to send her vectors into her forehead. Thinking Nana's going to kill her or otherwise attack her, Lucy screams. When she opens her eyes, however, she's unharmed, and attempts to use her vectors to kill Nana in retaliation. However, her vectors won't come out, and she demands to know what the girl did to her. Isobe and a squadron of SAT soldiers arrive on the scene to back Kurama up. Isobe notes that Nana will surely die, but before he can finish, Kurama goes to Nana's side to carefully lift Nana up from the pool of her own blood. Surprising everyone, Lucy doesn't attack him, but they don't know she can't. Kurama comforts Nana and asks why she went and fought Lucy when all she had to do was locate her, to which she apologizes. She only wanted to impress him by bringing Lucy back herself. Lucy comments on the touching scene by remarking how she thought Kurama's daughter was dead, and Kurama, after setting Nana back down, stands up. He replies that he killed his daughter and whips around to slap Lucy. The force of the strike sends her to the ground, shocking her as much as Isobe and the other soldiers. Hitting her is the least he can do to repay her for hurting Nana, he says, and Lucy glares at him as hatefully as she can. The soldiers take aim at her, but she bolts away. Isobe orders them to go after her as Kurama again holds Nana to stop her crying. Unlike the fight with Bandou, Lucy's battle with Nana shows just how brutal she can be when matched with someone who can actually go toe-to-toe with her. When she gets a hit in on Nana, it's only because Nana isn't paying attention. In all other areas, Nana outmatches her thanks to the length of her vectors and can defend herself quite easily while knocking her around. However, Nana lacks Lucy's ruthlessness. Her unwillingness to fully hurt her wound up costing her the fight, although Mayu's interference contributed to that as well. Whereas Nana didn't want to kill Lucy and was remorseful about even having to incapacitate her by injuring her leg, Lucy had no qualms about dismembering Nana when she got the chance. Had Kurama and company not interfered, Nana would have surely died. Differences Between the Manga and Anime Versions * In the manga, Nana approaches Lucy without the bag of communication equipment in hand. She's already put it aside when she comes near her, but in the anime, she has it in hand, then sets it aside. * In the manga, the battle does indeed start on the stone steps leading to Jouju-in Temple, but the girls don't move their match to the cemetery. Instead, they continue fighting in a patch of woods just off the path. * Given the location in the woods for the manga version, Lucy uses the trees as impromptu weapons against Nana, then switches over to using the giant stones from the walkway nearby. * Throughout the match, Lucy smiles and laughs maniacally as she hurts Nana. In the anime, she smirks but is otherwise somber and cold as she maims her. * Lucy's outfit is a bit different between manga and anime, with the only constant being the kind of jester's hat she has on. * Mayu is much closer to Nana and Lucy during their fight in the manga. While the anime has her outside the cemetery and going inside to see what the commotion is, in the manga, she's only a few steps down from the landing where the Diclonii are and interrupts them a lot faster. * Nana threatening to cripple Lucy's leg prior to Mayu's interruption is an anime-only instance. Similarly, Lucy doesn't cut off Nana's fingers in the manga when Mayu intervenes; she only cuts off her right leg. The next limb to go is Nana's right arm, as opposed to her left arm. The loss of the other two limbs remains the same between mediums. * Instead of being tossed into a tree like in the anime, the manga's version of events has Lucy throw her to the side of the path, out of the way but still not far off. * The snipers aren't hiding behind banners across the street in the manga version. Instead, they're visible but far out of Lucy's range. * Lucy vividly imagines cutting Nana's head off in retaliation when Nana disables her vectors. The anime doesn't show this. * The SAT soldiers talking amongst themselves when Kurama approaches Lucy and Nana is left out of the anime. * Lucy's escape into the woods in the manga slightly differs from her escape from the cemetery in the anime, but only in that she, naturally, has no gravestones to use as leverage for leaping away in a forest. * Lucy reverting to Nyuu is shown in the manga, and afterward, Nyuu goes straight to the Maple House. The anime skips over Lucy turning into Nyuu and has Nyuu meet Yuka on the bridge in town around sunset. Category:Series Information Category:Story Related Category:Great Battles Category:Manga Category:Anime Category:Kaede Category:Nana Category:Kurama Category:Essays Category:Article